Large gerbils detect landmines in Angola.

Heroic Animals: Remarkable Stories - Huge hamster-like rodents detect landmines in Angola.

Eifrig snuffles as Baraka dashes across a minefield. Although he can't see well, his sense of smell is incredibly developed. For Baraka, a giant hamster, has a crucial task: he's meant to discover hidden explosives.

Throughout his work, the hamster is suspended in a small container connected to a long rope with a wire. At the other end is a person donning mine-protection clothing. As Baraka runs over an area where mines may be buried, the person is also dressed in mine-protection gear.

Baraka has discovered something. He pauses, sniffs intensely, digs the ground slightly. This signifies that Baraka has found a mine, explains Raul Ilidio, Baraka's human counterpart. Numbered markers are set up at the edge of the field to denote the position of the explosives. Now, human landmine clearance experts know precisely where they need to defuse these.

Baraka is one of twelve giant hamster rats who help to clear landmines in Angola's Kwanza Sul Province, representing the Belgian organization Apopo. We fondly refer to them as "hero rats" since these rats save lives in post-war Angola, one of the countries with the most landmine casualties each year. More than 88,000 landmine injuries have been reported in the 36-million-inhabitant country in southern Africa since the civil war. The real number is assumed to be significantly greater, as per the international "Landmine Monitor."

No month goes by without fresh victims.

The world first learned about the challenges in Angola in the late 1990s when British Princess Diana visited the war-torn nation and traipsed through a landmine-filled field wearing protective gear. These images made the headlines worldwide and sparked a global debate. However, for Angola, the attention arrived too late.

Once mines are buried, clearing them is challenging, time-consuming, and hazardous. According to the most recent "Landmine Monitor" report, nearly 70 square kilometers remain to be cleared in Angola, twenty-two years after the conclusion of the civil war. The nation has made about 6 square kilometers of progress annually. This poses significant risks for the population: one hundred and seven people were either killed or injured by landmines in Angola in 2022, according to Manuel Agostinho, Apopo's Angola project manager. "There's no month without new victims," he states.

Hero rats, nevertheless, are making a considerable difference. The rats work much more efficiently than humans. While a landmine expert with a metal detector takes two days to clear 200 square meters with their life on the line, a rat achieves the same in half an hour. Moreover, their weight, not exceeding two kilograms, avoids activating landmines. Even a sniffer dog wouldn't be light enough.

Every rat used in the minefields needs stringent training. The rats undergo six to eight months of training and are tested at regular intervals. "We don't allow for any mistakes since they might cost lives," says Shaibu Hamisi, Apopo's rat training specialist. The importance of precision outweighs speed.

More individuals in Angola can now grow crops in their fields or gather firewood in the forest without fear because of the rats. Kids can play outside. The residents of Calulo, situated in Kwanza Sul, hope that Apopo will soon eliminate the mines in their region. Since every child in the village is aware of the dangers still lying underground, and almost everyone knows a family dealing with an accident.

Ana José Capagaio, a 37-year-old single mother of seven from the village, lost her left leg three years ago. She had merely strolled 150 meters from her home to gather firewood when she stepped on a landmine, she remarks. The subsistence farmer, who once fed her children with produce from her field, is grateful to have survived. However, since the accident, Capagaio and her children have relied on charity. Her brother, Joao Capagaio, observes the rats' progress and wishes that his children will grow up without the constant threat of landmines in the future.

Apopo's hero rats don't just operate in Angola. They also assist in clearing landmines in Cambodia, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Zimbabwe. The publication hopes these rats' rapid work will accelerate mine clearance progress. Nonetheless, Angola will not achieve its goal of clearing all mines by the end of 2025.

Did you know that, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS), approximately 110 million landmines are buried in 70 countries across the globe? That's enough to go around the planet almost three times if they were all placed a meter apart! Among the most heavily mine-contaminated countries are Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cambodia, Croatia, Ethiopia, and Turkey. The UN reports that up to 2,000 people are killed or injured by landmines every month. Most of these victims are civilians, with half of them being children. What's more surprising is that a landmine can be manufactured for less than one euro, while deactivating it costs between 300 and 1,000 euros. The process of deactivating them is also time-consuming and labor-intensive.

But hope is on the horizon. Hero rats, trained to detect landmines, could help speed up the process of mine clearance. These rats are used in Angola and other countries to find these explosives. With their keen sense of smell, they can pick up on the scent of explosives in the ground and indicate their presence. This not only reduces the risk of accidents and injuries to humans but also expedites the clearance process. Although it may take some time to completely clear all the landmines, the progress made by hero rats can help get us there faster.